Fear and Faith

Brothers and Sisters,

What is it that tempts you to fear in life? What is it that tempts you to lose your hope? Perhaps you struggle with the loss of a loved one, or your fear comes from something small and is only minor right now, but our human nature causes us to dwell on the fear and we perceive it to be larger than it really is. The truth is that all of us will experience temptations to fear and lose hope at one time or another. For this reason, we must all constantly listen to Jesus’ words and welcome His risen presence to dispel every fear in life, as we invite Jesus to bestow upon us the gift of His peace that comes from unwavering faith in His plan for our lives. 

In the Gospel reading this week, Jesus comes to his disciples right in the midst of their fear, pain, doubt, and confusion. He comes speaking peace, bringing faith into their anxious lives and driving out fear and doubt by His presence.

Reflect, today, upon any struggles you have with despair, fear or anxiety in life. As you do, know that all things are possible when you turn to Jesus with faith. Faith does not necessarily remove the hardships of life; it does something even better. It transforms hardships so that you can endure them with grace, joy and supernatural hope. When this happens, everything in life has the potential to be used by God for our good. All we need to do is continually reject fear and “just have faith.” Fear destroys faith, but faith drives out fear.

Instead of worrying and dwelling on your fear, ask Jesus to help you by speaking His peace into your situation. Believing that you have an opportunity to strengthen your faith and trust in the Lord even more deeply. Doing so will bring you great peace!

May the Lord’s Divine Mercy and Peace reign in our hearts.

God Bless,
Deacon Howard

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

On behalf of all of us at our Pastorate of the Visitation, I would like to wish everyone a very Blessed and Joyous Easter! Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen! Today is the most important day in the Christian year, even more important than Christmas. For today, we celebrate Jesus’ triumph over sin and death, offering to us the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life in the heavenly kingdom. Jesus’ Resurrection also ushers in a new era in human history, where we have been invited into a deeper union with God and sent forth into the world to share our witness and testimony concerning the saving power of Christ. So go forth today, and every day to proclaim that Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

The celebration of Easter is so important that the Church celebrates it as an Octave, meaning eight days. The Octave of Easter concludes next Sunday with the Sunday of Divine Mercy. Because Easter is late this year, we will also begin celebrating First Communions next weekend. St. Jane Frances will be celebrating at the 11:30am Mass on April 27th, and OLC will be celebrating the weekend of May 3–4 at several Masses. We also celebrate on Easter the Sacraments of Initiation for those entering into the Church at the Easter Vigil. We congratulate all who have joined or have been confirmed in the Church this year! The next couple of weeks are very busy, but busy with joyous and celebratory encounters with the Risen Christ.

Also during the Easter Season, we will be reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which documents the growth of the early Church, empowered by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Easter Season concludes with the Solemnity of Pentecost, which we will celebrate on June 8th. This year we are also planning to prepare for Pentecost by celebrating the Pentecost Novena beginning on May 30th. Stay tuned for more details.

There are many great events and celebrations planned for the coming weeks and months for our Pastorate. Many of them are included in this weekend’s bulletin. Please take a moment to review them and mark your calendars so that you can join us. I would like to highlight a few of them:

• We will be honoring the Blessed Mother with our annual May Crowning on Sunday, May 4th after the 10am Mass at St Jane Frances, and Sunday, May 11th after the 10:45am Mass at OLC.
• The Knights of Columbus at OLC will be hosting a Mother’s Day breakfast on May 11th in the Gathering Place. Come and celebrate Mom’s special day! 
• Our Lady of the Chesapeake is celebrating our 45th anniversary this year. Archbishop Lori will be celebrating the 4:00pm Mass on Saturday, May 31st followed by a celebratory toast in the Gathering Place. Fr. Jim will be with him as well. 
• We are also selling raffle tickets for our Forty-Five Fantastic Years of Faith Raffle. Tickets are $20 each and there are 21 chances to win a prize. The drawing will take place after the 4:00 p.m. Mass on May 31st. Raffle tickets can be purchased online at GiveCentral.org, after Masses, or by emailing OLCanniversary@olchesapeake.org.

Thank you for keeping our Pastorate of the Visitation—St. Jane Frances de Chantal and Our Lady of the Chesapeake—in your daily prayers! We certainly remember all of you in my daily prayers as well!

God Bless,
Father Steve & Father John

Holy Week

Dear Friends of our Pastorate of the Visitation,

This weekend begins our journey through the holiest week of the year with the celebration of the Passion of the Lord on Palm Sunday. Holy Week offers us many opportunities to experience Jesus’ journey from the Last Supper, to his Cross, and to his Resurrection. I encourage you to take some time this week to enter into these solemn days of prayer and fasting with a sense of reverence and reflection upon what our Savior Jesus Christ accomplished for us by his Passion. I invite you and encourage you to join us as we celebrate these liturgies together as one Pastorate Community. They are very powerful experiences of the Lord’s overwhelming love for us… a love that led him to freely take up His Cross. Here are the Holy Week and Triduum schedules for the Pastorate:

Holy Thursday (@ OLC), April 17th – 7:00pm Mass followed by Adoration until 9:00pm

Good Friday, April 18th – Passion of the Lord – 3:00pm at SJF, 7:00pm at OLC
(Communion will be distributed at these services.)

Good Friday, Stations of the Cross – 12:00pm at SJF, 3:00pm at OLC (youth led)
(Communion is NOT distributed at these services.)

Blessing of the Easter Foods, April 19th – 9:00am at SJF, 12:00pm at OLC

Pastorate Easter Vigil (@ SJF), April 19th – 8:00pm at SJF
(There will be no Confessions and no 4:00pm nor 5:00pm Masses on April 19th)

Easter Sunday, April 20th

• SJF: 8:00am, 10am, 12:00pm (Note time change).
• OLC: 8:00am, 9:30am, 11am (Note time changes).

Fr. Steve and Fr. John will be at the Triduum liturgies as well as the Easter Vigil. Fr. John will celebrate Masses on Easter Sunday at SJF. Fr. Steve will be celebrating Easter Sunday Masses at OLC. The 10:00am Mass at SJF and the 11:00am Mass at OLC will offer homilies geared toward the children of the pastorate.

In addition to the events listed above, the Archdiocesan Chrism Mass will take place on Monday, April 14th at 7:00pm at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore. At this Mass, the Archbishop will bless the holy oils to be used for Anointing of the Sick and the catechumens, as well as consecrate the Sacred Chrism that will be used for Baptisms, Confirmations, and Holy Orders during the coming year. The priests of the Archdiocese will also renew the promises we made at our ordinations. This celebration is open to the public, and all are invited to attend. As a priest, I know I am always thankful to see current (and former) parishioners in attendance. Please consider joining us.

Fr. John and I will be offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Tuesday, April 15th from 6:00pm to 7:30pm at St Jane Frances. Tenebrae will be celebrated at St Jane Frances at 8:00pm that evening.

Thank you for keeping our Pastorate of the Visitation—St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake—in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Fr. Steve

Mission Accomplished!

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,

We are gaining momentum in our Lenten pilgrimage! Stay close to Jesus and the disciples by following the daily Mass readings. The daily readings are capturing the stage being set for Jesus’ Passion. Find the daily Mass readings at https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading. Perhaps even find one additional time when you are able to participate in Mass during the week! Jesus awaits you!

There has been much going on! Our Lenten mission with Father Brian Nolan was especially anointed and hope-filled! The talks were livestreamed, so you can still access them via Facebook on each church’s page online. Fr. Brian provided us with a lot of food for prayer. If anything from his reflections inspired you or resonated with you—especially that might be beneficial to our mission—continue praying about those things and connect with us!

On the note of initiatives, thank you to those who helped organize and who participated in our Pastorate 24-Hour Eucharistic adoration. We had around 50 adorers who signed up and even more who spent time praying before the living Jesus throughout the day. May this time of adoration bear fruit in our souls and in our pastorate as we seek to love the Lord and make him loved!

Mrs. Carrie, Mrs. Sam Urban, and our middle schoolers have spent several Sundays preparing for the pastorate’s Passion Play on April 11 at 7pm. Please join us for this moving meditation!

We have had MANY people asking about entering the Catholic faith as well as adult Catholics desiring to receive Confirmation along with further formation in their Catholic faith. This is so moving and inspiring! If this is you or someone you know, please write to me john.bilenki@archbalt.org and I would be delighted to connect and discuss how we can best serve you.

Do you know when you’re going to Mass on Easter?? Who is the Holy Spirit asking you to invite?? Please note the following!

The Pastorate Easter Vigil is at St. Jane Frances at 8pm on April 19.

On Easter Sunday, April 20, Masses at St. Jane Frances will be celebrated at 8am, 10am, and 12 noon. Please note this slight adjustment from our usual Sunday schedule.

Easter Sunday Masses at Our Lady of the Chesapeake will be celebrated at 8am, 9:30am, and 11am (youth ministry Mass). Please note these adjustments from our usual Sunday schedule.

But, before we get to Easter, there is much of Lent left to live. “Live and let Lent,” you might sing. Persevere in remaining open to the graces of this season as the Lord continues to reveal the depth of his love to us. Thank you for keeping the Pastorate of the Visitation in your daily prayers!

God bless you!
Father John

The Prodigal Son

Brothers and Sisters,

We’ve heard the parable of the prodigal son many times. We know this parable speaks to us about repentance and reconciliation but also about the extravagant love and mercy of the father. From the first action of the father to the throwing of an elaborate party in the end, this story contains many twists and turns all of which make the point that God’s love overcomes the reckless, despairing wanderings of His children. In the end, love conquers all. The parable has two major points. First, repentance means an absolute reversal of our broken status. The lost son has become a family member again. He is fully restored. The father’s acceptance of the penitent son is total. This is God’s grace. This is why God pursues sinners. Second, all of us should have joy when the penitent returns. Reconciliation involves not only God and the individual but also the individual and the community.

Today is a good day to place ourselves in the shoes of the prodigal son or the prodigal daughter. At times in our lives, we also have left the home of our God. We have wandered away to a distant place and perhaps we also have squandered what little we had. How long will we keep our distance from God? Are we afraid that God will never forgive us? Perhaps we think we do not deserve to be forgiven. And yet, God is always on the lookout for us, yearning for us, waiting for us to return home. God will never stop loving us! He longs to restore that loving relationship with Him. He shows us that restoring broken relationships involves profound actions. Strong, loving relationships always require reaching out to the other.

Where is our Lord calling us to mend broken relationships in our own life?

God Bless,
Deacon Howard

Holy Moses!

Dear Friends of our Pastorate,

This weekend, we celebrate the Third Sunday of Lent. Our first reading is from the Book of Exodus and recounts for us the call of Moses, who sees fire coming from a bush but the bush is not burning. As he goes to investigate what is happening, he comes to realize that it is the Lord God calling him to take on a mission to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and deliver them to the Promised Land. If you read the entire passage (we only have part of it today), Moses is hesitant to accept this mission. He comes up with excuse after excuse until finally the Lord God tells him to go do it, and trust that the Lord will be with him on this journey. Ultimately, Moses is successful in his mission, even though he did not believe he had what it would take to accomplish it.

Do you ever feel that way when it comes to a task or mission that you have to do? It could be something at work or it could be something that you hear the Lord calling you to do. Whatever it may be, today’s first reading is a wonderful reminder of our call to trust in the Lord, no matter what. God’s expectations for us as disciples are to bear fruit for the kingdom, as we hear in the Gospel today. Jesus offers us every opportunity to do this, and we can accomplish it, if we trust in the ways of the Lord who is kind and merciful.

Thank you to everyone who helped with our annual St. Patrick’s Day Bazaar at St. Jane Frances last week. It was another successful evening! Special thanks to Teresa Sparklin, Melissa Boyle and all of the many volunteers who assisted us. These events are great opportunities for us to evangelize our community by helping all who attend to experience the Spirit of the Lord dwelling within us and guiding our pastorate’s mission.

Join us this week at 7:00pm on March 24-26 for our Annual Lenten Mission entitled “Hope in the Lord.” Our presented will be Fr. Brian Nolan, pastor of St. Ignatius Church in Ijamsville, MD and former associate pastor at St. Jane Frances. March 24th and 26th will be held at St Jane Frances in the Church. The Session on Tuesday, March 25th will be held at OLC and will conclude with the opportunity for Confessions. Please plan to join us!

It is not too late to register for the 2025 Catholic Men’s Fellowship Conference being held on Saturday, April 5th from 8:00am to 3:00pm at St. Joseph Fullerton Church. To register, go to catholicmensfellowship.com or talk to Fr. John for more information.

Don’t forget our weekly Stations of the Cross on the Fridays during Lent. We are offering Stations at 12:00pm on Fridays at OLC and 7:00pm on Fridays at St Jane Frances. Also be sure to come to the Lenten Fish Frys on the Fridays during Lent at St. Jane Frances hosted by the Knights of Columbus.

Thank you for keeping St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake—our Pastorate of the Visitation—in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Father Steve

Lenten Happenings

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

A major step in my initiation to the Pastorate took place this past Friday: the St. Patrick’s Day Bazaar! Thank you to the Chair Teresa Sparklin assisted by Melissa Boyle and to so many volunteers who gave of themselves in different ways for the success of this event. Thank you all for so many donations, your presence, and your prayers for the Bazaar.

Speaking of St. Patrick… The memorial of St. Patrick is tomorrow March 17! Consider web-searching and meditating on “The Breastplate of St. Patrick” prayer before you enjoy your corned beef and cabbage! Sláinte!

On another note of initiation, please continue to intercede for our Pastorate’s catechumens and candidates preparing to enter the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil! If you have never been to the Easter Vigil or if it has been some years, I strongly encourage you to join us this year! In our Catholic tradition, it is called the “mother of all Vigils,” because it is where we celebrate—in word and sacrament while keeping watch in the night—the Resurrection event of Jesus from the dead. In the Exsultet prayer that is chanted at the Vigil, we declare this night as “truly blessed… worthy alone to know the time and hour when Christ rose from the underworld!”

I’m very much looking forward to sharing these holiest days with you all as it will be my first Triduum in a parish setting as a priest. I am especially thankful to all of our new Altar Servers at both churches who have recently joined the ranks! We have also had teens step-up to serve as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and as Lectors – thank you for your generosity and joyful witness to our spiritual family. Thank you parents for your encouragement and support as well.

At St. Jane, we have some newly built/refurbished picnic tables courtesy of parishioner Blake Greenbeck-Marsh. This project not only furnishes the grounds we enjoy at SJF, but also brings Blake near the reception of his Eagle Scout award. Thank you, Blake and congratulations! Blake’s labors are a great segue to mentioning… 

The Solemnity of St. Joseph, this Wednesday March 19! He is a model for us in many ways, especially of being faithful during the “ordinary, unspectacular flow of daily life” as they say at Mount St. Joe. In his 2020 apostolic letter Patris Corde, Pope Francis wrote, “Each of us can discover in Joseph—the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence—an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble. Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation. A word of recognition and of gratitude is due to them all.” May St. Joseph intercede for you as YOU fulfill YOUR “incomparable role in the history of salvation”—in your prayer, in your home, at work, in all of your daily duties and encounters.

May St. Joseph and St. Patrick, St. Jane and Our Lady of the Chesapeake intercede for us as we follow Jesus in this Lenten season. Let us pray for and encourage one another in Christ.

God bless!
Father John